


The Little Things Here and There

by IvyS



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Karasuno, THIS ISN'T EDITED, also known as the 'chloe had too many feelings at 1am' fic, brief mentions of kindaichi, maybe one day it will be, mostly introspective, my blueberry child, not at 1am tho, oh wait it's 2am now, there's kagehina if you squint, this is a very kageyama-centric fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 11:17:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5495195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvyS/pseuds/IvyS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kageyama is thrown a surprise birthday party, and not for the first time in his life, he can't find the right words to say.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Things Here and There

**Author's Note:**

> A short fic written at midnight for my blueberry child's birthday! It isn't edited so there might be errors here and there. Happy Birthday Kageyama!

Kageyama doesn’t know what to say when he walks into the gym, and a party popper goes off into his face. Of course, his natural reaction is to stumble back and let out an inhuman shriek, but once he gets over that and takes in the scene before him, he is rendered speechless.

There are balloons scattered around the floor, streamers hanging messily from the railings of the second floor and confetti all over the place. The most eye-catching thing is the banner that’s stretched between the two net poles in the place of the net, with its bright red lettering that reads, “Happy Birthday Kageyama!” It felt like someone took a birthday bomb and set it off in the middle of the court.

Then there are his teammates.

Hinata’s yelling something- Kageyama can’t tell what because he’s too used to tuning out Hinata’s chatter, but the small cone in his hand makes it obvious that he’s the one responsible for the almost-heart attack he had earlier. Nishinoya has three more in his hand, and it’s plain to see that if it wasn’t for him jumping on Tanaka he would have set them off. Ennoshita stiffly inches away from the duo, balancing the cake tray on his hand, worried that Noya might accidentally knock it away. “Happy Birthday Kageyama!” Daichi greets with his usual smile on his face.

Kageyama’s still trying to figure out how to respond, but Hinata saves him from that by cutting in. “Do you like the decorations? Do you? We came in at like six in the morning to put everything up!” He grabs him by the wrist and drags him over to the net, “I painted this with Suga-san during lunch break yesterday! See? I did the volleyballs on this side, and Suga-san did the letters.” Oh, so that’s what those circles were meant to be. Honestly, they aren’t even really circular, and the lines are a mess, but Kageyama can’t find the heart to tell Hinata.

“Hinata helped me put it up this morning too,” Suga adds from the side. “What do you think? It’s cool right?”

“I- Th- much!” Kageyama stutters, much to the amusement of his teammates. They laugh and clap him on the back, used to his occasional slip ups, and then they proceed with the celebrations. The cake cutting goes smoothly with Kiyoko handling the knife, and after they give him all their presents,  (even Tsukishima got him something) they get back to their usual practice.

It was only a short, small party, but it leaves Kageyama feeling funny in his chest for the rest of the day.

It isn’t only until the end of evening practice does he realise what it is and _why_.

It’s gratefulness, relief, and a kind of overwhelming joy. It’s the kind of joy that knocks you over like an overexcited dog that greets you once you get home, or like when a cat actually responds to your call. Either way, it leaves him feeling incredibly light. He honestly hadn’t been expecting this; his old team back at Kitagawa Daiichi never celebrated his birthday- and at first he thought that it was because they forgot, but how could they when they remembered almost every single birthday of the other members? He told himself that he didn’t care because it didn’t relate to volleyball in any way, and over the span of three years trained himself to forget about the 22nd of December.

Kageyama knew. He knew that the silence on his birthdays was a rejection from his teammates, a sort of silent refusal to acknowledge him as one of them even though he was the setter. They couldn’t very well ignore him inside the court, could they? So they’d do it outside of it, when team didn’t matter as much. It hurt really badly, even though Kageyama would never bring himself to admit it.

He had never really settled things with them even though he knew he should, and sometimes those loose ends would drive him crazy. No amount of excuses ever made them go away, but being around his team at Karasuno helped. The way they treated him; everything from Hinata’s persistent demands for tosses to Tsukishima’s sass, actually made him feel _there,_ like this was where he was supposed to be, where he fit, instead of a grudging necessity like he’d been at Kitagawa. It acted like a sort of balm for the cracks that middle school had put in him. He wasn’t the setter because there wasn’t any other choice- he knew that they could do as well with Suga setting for the seniors, but rather he was there because that’s where they accepted him. They trusted him. And in return, he would try to give them his best tosses.

At the end of the night, Kageyama knows that it’s not really the party that makes him feel fuzzy. He tries to put it across in words, but all he manages is one measly, “Thank you.”

It’s not enough, not to him, but how can he make them understand? How does he tell them that he’s thanking them for their _trust_ without sounding like a freak? His brows furrow, and he’s getting frustrated, but a light nudge from Hinata slams the breaks down on everything.

“What’s a team for, you idiot?” He grins.

Looking around at the rest of them, Kageyama understands that he doesn’t really need the words.

They already know.

 


End file.
